The Project - Looking For Dirt - CycleBlaze

The Project

Here she is.  The New/Old bike who has not seen the light of day for 30-plus years.

Here it is. Wags is supervising this project.
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Keith AdamsPro tip: consider reorganizing the wheels so that the one with the gears is at the back of the bike. It'll fit better and the chain won't get all messed up each time you turn the handlebars. :)
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1 year ago
Gross
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Mike AylingGonna need a new chain!
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1 year ago
Karen CookTo Mike AylingHa ha. So true! ;-)
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1 year ago
Karen CookTo Mike AylingHa ha. I got a new chain AND a new bike. ;-)
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1 year ago
Eeeewwww gross!
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I’m guessing there is a 30 year old bug stuck to the wheel. Yum!!
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30 year old dirt!
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But it wasn’t gross for long.   I fixed her up with a new chain, shifters, seatpost, tires, etc.....

After much work she is looking better!
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Ta-DAAAA! Ready to ride
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Keith AdamsLokos MUCH tidier!
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1 year ago

She is a great little bike and I felt a little more motivated to ride again.  I'm having fun with it on the local trails.

So I thought, why not tour with this bike?  I would like to get off the roads a bit more.  Im not interested in technical trails and crazy stuff but dirt roads are a different story.  

Adding dirt roads to the mix opens up all kinds of interesting route possibilities.  And I would love to do things such as dirt/gravel roads and/or return to Camino de Santiago in Spain.  I rode some of that route with The Trucker.  But the geometry of the trucker wasn’t ideal.  A mountain type bike would be better.

Except when all was said and done I couldn't make THIS mountain bike work for touring.  It is aluminum, not sure that's a good touring material?  It doesn't have brazons/attachment points for racks, bags, fenders, etc and the fit isn't right for hours a day in the saddle.   I could have fixed the fit with stem adapters and other "adapters" to change from an 80's mountain bike to modern parts, but it just got to be a little too much in the end.  Oh, and tires were surprisingly difficult to find, because of modern wheel sizes.

I will still ride on local trails.  And it turns out this was a great transition bike. But if I really am going to add dirt to the touring mix, It was clear I needed to set my sights on a proper, modern day off road touring bike after all. 

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Kirsten KaarsooGreat to see the transformation of a neglected bike to a useable loved bike.
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1 year ago
Karen CookTo Kirsten KaarsooHi Kristen,
I agree! It was a fun little project during Covid, though I admit that since I don't know what I am doing it took a REALLY long time. ;-) And in the end I needed an actual mechanic to get the shifters to work right!
Karen
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1 year ago
Keith AdamsA trailer can do the job as far as carrying stuff goes. (I recently started a thread singing the praises of my trusty old B.o.B. Yak one-wheel cargo trailer, which is my go-to when I'm riding the C&O Canal on my mountain bike.)
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1 year ago